Four Heartbeats After the Fact
by Awkwardly Intrepid
Summary: Sometimes, our only consistency is inconsistency.
1. Ch 1: Four Heartbeats After the Fact

Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property and copyright of their owners.  
>Fanfiction stories provided for educational purposes and personal use only.<br>**©_Naruto_ is copyright Masashi Kishimoto/Hayato Date/Shueisha/Studio Pierrot/TV Tokyo/Viz Media**

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><p>An ear-splitting crack reverberated throughout the the forest as yet another one of its inhabitants splintered violently under the force of her punches, screeching loudly before finding its way to the ground. Leaves scattered from their respective branches upon impact, and the force of the fall blew back her candy colored hair.<p>

A curse threw itself from her lips, and she straightened a little from her fighting stance, her outreached fist still stinging from the impact of the elm she just leveled. She had surfaced a decent clearing in the densest forest of Konoha, but it wasn't doing much to help her mood.

She had chosen this spot on purpose. The trees were so thick here, it was said that the first hokage had perfected his Mokuton jutsu in this very place, the result being a forest large enough to build up an entire country. A feat, she realized, that was probably the first hokage's intent in the first place.

It was but a moment before she let another chakra laced punch hit the next tree, the black leather of her gloves straining against her knuckles. She clenched her fist and pulled her arm back again. Taught like a stretched rubber band, she cut the tension and let her arm swing into the trunk immediately to her left. It was not the ideal way to spend the afternoon, but she didn't trust herself to keep her composure around people. Not today.

_Sasuke-kun._

Her teeth clench together roughly as she recalled the reason for her distress.

What was _wrong_ with her? It had been weeks since the war concluded, and, while the village was still far from settled, the relief in the air among the civilians was almost tangible. So _why_ was she so _angry_? Was it due to the fact that the victories they had sustained were almost weighted equally with their casualties? Upsetting, yes, but if she was being honest with herself, she knew that her antagonism was rooted elsewhere. Madara and Obito Uchiha had been obliterated, the dead stopped coming back to life with the cessation of Orochimaru's Edo Tensei, and Naruto had faced off with Sasuke squarely.

Her fist dug deeper into the bark at the thought.

She supposed it was inevitable- the fight that was always meant to be, but it had been strenuous. Naruto had leveled miles in his endeavor to get through to the Uchiha, and Sasuke reciprocated like the devil, vicious and ruthless and dripping with the intent to kill. It had been the fight of the age, the confrontation between the first hokage and Madara Uchiha paling in comparison. And in the end...In the end Naruto had gotten through to the raven hair boy somehow, and as Sakura all but dragged Kakashi through the flattened battlefield, they had found their teammates sprawled face up in the dirt. The boys were battered, bodies covered in bruises, open and bleeding- chests heaving with exertion, yet they were still smiling- Naruto with his shit eating grin and Sasuke with a smirk that had reminded her of the boy from her childhood.

Verdigris eyes refocused on the present as another tree knocked into another before falling back to the earth. Wasn't this what she wanted? What she had asked for- tearfully declaring it to be her life's wish to Naruto in a bout of desperation?

No, it wasn't. She had begged Naruto to bring back Sasuke. _Her _Sasuke. But as time progressed it became clear that the Uchiha that had returned to village was far from the raven haired boy from her youth.

Yet a small piece clung to the idea that her Sasuke was still in there- a piece, she realized bitterly, that had nearly earned her a one way ticket to hell on more than one occasion.

Still, Naruto had continued on with his daily routine after the war, smiling and blowing all of his money at Ichiraku's, the ever-present grin widespread on his face, and Sasuke had been released from the hokage's custody after he had been deemed harmless to the welfare of Konohagakure. As if nothing had happened. _As if nothing had happened_.

The elders of the village were promptly booted from their position shortly afterwards, and while the villagers were far from comfortable in his presence at the moment, Naruto was convinced Sasuke was slowly but surely acclimating to daily life in the village again. She had seen the Uchiha a few times since the reunion of team seven, even hosting a lunch at her flat for her former teammates that very afternoon. He certainly seemed fine; he wasn't exactly jumping at his own shadow.

So why was she so distraught? Shouldn't she be _happy _now? What, had she expected that Sasuke would come back and just run into her waiting arms like a puppy with profound promises to never leave her again? Really? What was it that was bothering her to the point of beating trees to a pulp in fits of rage?

Visualizing her chakra gathering into her palm, she exhaled and sent a straight jab into the tree, expelling her stored chakra at the point of contact and tapping into the "super strength" she inherited from her mentor.

"_Shānnarō!"_

The tree was obliterated even before impact, shattering into millions of splinters that flew in all directions, embedding themselves in the surrounding spruces.

The sound of the tree's descent grazed her ears, but she didn't really hear it. Her head was else where.

"You know, if you keep leveling the trees, you're going to have to answer to the hokage as to where his clan's deer went."

Her head snapped up, eyes wide in shock, only for the surprise to be melted off her features seconds later. There was her former sensei, perched on one of the higher branches of a tall spruce, his trademark icha-icha volume in his hand.

"Kakashi-sensei, you didn't have to mask your chakra to come see me."

His visible eye narrowed at the 'sensei.' He'd tried to get the kids to drop it years before, but save for Sasuke, who'd never used it in the first place, they'd all clung to the honorific. A trait that was not uncommon throughout the rookie nine.

"It was for dramatic effect."

Typical Kakashi answer.

"We could've used you at lunch today."

"I was on my way when I was distracted by the possibility of finding a civilian's recently lost cat."

She blew out a puff of air. Of course she wouldn't get a straight answer; that wasn't how Kakashi operated. On a normal day, she would have shrugged this off as normative. But today, everything got on her nerves. Today, everything once pushing her on step closer to the edge.

"So I noticed."

He looked up from his book and stared at Sakura levelly for a full minute, appraising her with the empty gray eye she'd become so used to, like he was looking for something

"I usually attribute this sort of moodiness to another former student of mine."

She ignored the pang she felt in her chest at the allusion to Sasuke. Letting out another sigh for what felt like the hundredth time today, she started to rake a hand through her hair, only to stop midway. Shizune always told her she would be bald before the age of 30 if she kept pulling on her hair, and at the rate she was going, Sakura was starting to believe it. Chalk it up to old habits, but even if she had shorn it off, she was still very fond of her pink locks.

"Sorry Kakashi sensei. I'm a little… On edge right now."

He slowly pulled his gaze back to his book,

"…I wonder why that could be."

Her jaw set on its accord, her teeth grinding against each other roughly. That was low.

"Is there a reason for this visit? Because, if you haven't noticed, I'm in the middle of something."

A chuckle found its way through the fabric of his mask, "I just wanted to see how my favorite student was doing, in light of recent events."

Sakura rolled her eyes at the white lie. It was a well-known fact among the rookie nine that all the senseis had picked favorites within their squads. For Kurenai, it was Hinata. For Asuma, it had been Shikamaru, Guy, Lee. And for Kakashi, it had been Sasuke from day one and they both knew it. Both Sakura and Naruto knew that this was, in part, why Kakashi felt so guilty about the fourth war. He held himself accountable for not only Obito's downfall, but Sasuke's as well.

"Naruto's worried about you, you know," he continued on his ever bored drawl.

She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised by the statement. Of course she hadn't fooled the blonde. Naruto might have been an idiot, but he was more empathetic than most and was able to pick up on others feelings at a drop of a hat. She turned her back to her sensei and started to walk away,

"I'll figure it out Kakashi-sensei."

_I've always had to before._

She was further away from him now, and he had to call out,

"Oh, and I should mention that Shizune wanted to see you. She said it was urgent or something."

She whirled "Why didn't you sa-"

But he was already gone. She let out a howl of rage, throwing a fist into a tree immediately to her right. No chakra, no extra power. Just her fist. The tree didn't fall, but her fist left a significant impression in the bark. Pain pulsated through her hand.

It would bruise later, but the external pain was something she could deal with. It was a welcomed distraction, at least, from what was going on inside.

* * *

><p>Arriving at the Konoha General maybe ten minutes later out of breath, she breezed through the doors and continued through the back. Being on practically first name basis with the entire staff, she didn't need clearance like most everyone else; she practically lived at the hospital nowadays.<p>

The life of a medic in a shinobi village was a difficult one. In typical civilian villages, most accidents that required medical assistance happened in the day time. There were exceptions of course, but for the most part, the nights were quiet. However, within a shinobi village, the general demographic was split between civilians and ninja. Civilians lived in the daytime, and the ninja thrived in the night. Nearly nocturnal, the shinobi used the added stealth that came with the darkness to thrive in their profession. It was for this reason that the medics and nurses had a reputation of never sleeping in Konoha, and the reason Shizune actually lived on base after she took over as the hospital representative and general head of medicinal affairs. She did take shifts, but Sakura couldn't remember the last time she saw the woman out for herself.

Sakura's lightly closed fist wrapped once, twice, three times against the door, but she didn't wait for an acknowledgement before she opened the door and regarded the woman furiously signing a mountain of paperwork from behind her desk. It brought a smile to Sakura's face. Shizune may not have been hokage or even been considered for the position when Tsunade stepped down, but she sure did resemble their mentor in more ways than one when put in a leadership position.

"Reporting."

Shizune looked up at the pinkette in surprise, almost as if she hadn't heard her come in (she hadn't).

"Oh, Sakura. Sit down." she said before returning back to her paperwork, scanning them vigorously, initialling and signing here and there as her eyes moved further and further down the page.

Sakura's head fell to the side. Sit down? Wasn't this urgent? Sure, her senpai was flustered, but that wasn't exactly unusual. At least, not _urgent._

The younger medic's hand fell lithely to one of the chair situated in front of the wooden desk, deftly pulling it back a ways to make room for her body in its cavity.

Shizune's hand stilled and she let out a massive sigh, her body seeming to sink noticeably as it emptied of air. She finally looked up at Sakura with a hesitant look on her face.

"I have an assignment for you."

Sakura's ears perked at the word. If she was hearing this from Shizune, it had to medicinally related. She warmed to the thought. It had been awhile since she had had a mission that coincided directly with her specialization.

"Hai."

Shizune's left hand slipped into her robe's sleeve only to reappear moments later with a scroll. She handed it to Sakura quickly, and continued to stare at the pinkette from across her desk.

Taking the hint, Sakura freed the scroll from its binds, pulling apart the parchment and scanning its contents.

"_**Mission type: reconnaissance" **_

_Okay, nothing out of the ordinary there…_

"_**Sasuke Uchiha."**_

The name flashed passed her vision as she read through the wall of text, and she quickly backtracked to make sure. Words flashed through her consciousness,

"_**Reconnaissance."**_

"_**Scrutinization and logged inventory of all abilities of the target in question."**_

"_**Sasuke Uchiha"**_

Sakura's head snapped up in question.

"I thought Sasuke-kun was deemed as a non-threat to Konoha!"

Shizune averted her eyes and bit her lip.

"He was."

Sakura's fist came down on the arm of her chair. Hard. The wood groaned in protest, and Shizune shot her a disapproving look at her outburst.

"Sakura…"

"Then _WHY!?"_

The older kunoichi sighed, her hand dropping to her desktop and drumming her fingers lightly on the wooden surface.

"He's not considered a threat, but when Uchiha-san turned himself in and into Konoha, he did so under the condition that his allegiance would once again be to the Fire Country unconditionally. Any and all intel on abilities or jutsus he acquired in his absence that could be potentially be beneficial to the wellbeing of the village are now forfeit to the intelligence division and the archives. It is important that we map out the physical abilities, especially since Uchiha is the second most prominent bloodline in Konoha."

Sakura's teeth came together with an audible snap. Fan-fucking-tastic.

"...And you need me because…?"

"It is believed that your prowess in analytical skills and medical ninjutsu added to your former bond to Uchiha-san that you would make you the most suited for the mission."

A dull thud reached her ears, and it was only when she looked down that she realized she had dropped the mission scroll. She went to pick it up, but her vision became hot and blurry with moisture. Covering her eyes with her hand in embarrassment, Sakura's entire frame shook as her voice cracked.

"Shizune...Don't make me do this..."

The older woman hesitated a bit, "I didn't exactly have a choice."

Sakura tore her eyes back to the scroll. It was signed with an ANBU mark, a sign of authority and high importance. There was no backing out of this one. She quickly read through the entire text in its entirety before tossing the scroll back onto the desk and falling back into the chair.

Acute emotional stress pressed against her chest, and despite the asphyxiation that came with anxiety, Sakura rubbed a fist roughly against her lash line, dragging away the moisture from her tear ducts.

"Did Kakashi know?"

"He may have had some idea, yes."

Sakura quietly cataloged a little reminder to obliterate her former sensei after she got through with her mission.

"Where is Sasuke-kun." It came out more like admission than a question.

"Psychiatric wing. West hall. 5th room."

Made sense. The psychiatric wing had the highest security in the building. Not that that meant much when dealing with someone of Sasuke's caliber.

Shizune slipped some keys across the table with a tentative smile on her lips,

"I'm sorry, Sakura."

The pinkette sniffed her tears back once more before swiftly grabbing the ward keys and hooking the band they were attached to around her upper arm.

"I swear to Kami-sama, if I don't get a raise after this…." she raked a hand through her hair again, beauty be damned, and stomped out the door.

She knew she wasn't being fair. It wasn't exactly Shizune's fault, she was just the messenger, but Sakura was too far gone for formalities. Something told her Shizune would understand anyways.

Stalking down the hospital's hallways, she purposefully ignored the other medic-nins that hustled by her, only regarding the ones brave enough to greet her with a curt nod. Reaching into to her shuriken pouch, she pulled out a hair clip before yanking back her hair and snapping it out of the way.

There was no time to think; now was not the time to act on the feelings that told her to run right back to the forest. Shoving the emotional tendencies more reminiscent of her twelve year old self in a box, she snapped several locks on it before pushing it to the deepest recesses of her being. There would be time for heartbreak and turmoil and angsty outcries later. She wasn't that girl anymore. At least, not in front of him.

Left, right, two flights of stairs, a hallway, another right. She unlocked doors as she went, bypassing security with no more than a wave of her hand.

5.

The number stared at her almost mockingly for a moment. She shouldn't hesitate, but she could feel her twelve year old self knocking softly from inside the box, heart fluttering in anticipation. He could no doubt sense her across the door.

One heart beat. Two. Three heart beats. Four.

She opened the door, stepping inside and closing it behind her quickly before turning around.

He was sitting on the edge of the examination table with a slouched posture. He looked up when she entered though, a blank expression on his face.

"Sakura."

"Sasuke-kun."

He should have known it would have been her. Logic pointed him to guess as much, but he'd clung to the ideal that maybe by some sort of mercy of fate, another med-nin would be running the tests.

_I should be so fucking lucky. _

She started flipping through the chart she had grabbed on her way in, already confirming that which she already knew. Vitals were good. History was sketchy.

_Great._

She pulled open some cabinet doors and pulled out some paper medical robes.

"Okay, I'm going to need you to strip and put this on."

He took the robes from her before tossing them on the examination table. Grabbing the hem of his shirt, he yanked the material over his head.

Sakura paused, eyes catching a glimpse of the Uchiha's sculpted abdominal flexing and contorting with movement. The Uchiha tossed his shirt to the corner, but paused when she noticed her blatantly staring.

"What?"

"Er… Nothing. It's just that patients usually wait until we leave to start changing."

_Fuck. _

His head fell for a second. Embarrassment maybe?

_Too late now. _

He's already shrugging out of his pants, letting them pool at his ankles before reuniting them with the rest of his clothes in the corner.

The twelve-year-old was in full force now, prying her way out from inside of the box, snapping locks off with sheer force and tenacity. One, two...

_Holy shit, those shoulders…_

She pulled her attention to his charts. Leave her twelve-year old self to rear her head even after almost receiving a chidori to the skull...

The sound of paper crinkling alerted her to him placing himself back on the examination table. Sure enough when she looked up, Sasuke had returned to his former sitting position.

She steeled herself and walked over to him. Pulling out a file from beneath her clipboard, she flipped it open to an open page.

"I'm going to need you to lay back for me. So basically the way this works is that I give a full scan and diagram anything I find, her little finger pointed to a human silhouette outlined on the chart. Two simple sharingan had already been penciled in with a set of notes on it off to the side. I'm going to give you as many details as possible, but you might be contacted by the intel division later to go into detail on anything I might've skimmed over."

He gave a long sigh, clearly annoyed. He'd be here for a while.

"Hn."

When he laid back, she put her chart down and pulled the robe from his shoulders. A second later and her hands glowed a faint green. She leaned over his form, any fringe that had failed to be tamed falling in front of her face, and started floating her hands through the air above his body, scanning for any abnormalities and getting a feel for his chakra flow and signature.

Every once in a while she'd pass over a particularly bad scar and ask about it.

Fight with an Akastuki member. Ornery summoning host. Remnants from his battle with Danzo; most he didn't remember. As she finished up, she ran her thumb rubbed up against the scar of the stab wound left by Madara. It was nothing but sheer curiosity that fueled her movements, but he shuddered a bit at the contact, despite having no feeling in the keloid.

"I have one similar to this..." she drifted off and her hand absent-mindedly ran to the skin above one of her hips, running her fingers over the scar through her clothing.

What was he supposed to say? "Cool?" He cleared his throat once, and she blinked, coming back to reality once again before turning to note the scar in his chart.

"For the bingo book" she explained with a wink. "Sit up for me?"

He complied without complaint, and she tried not to take notice at the corded but lean muscles of his back. Large enough to have bulk, but lean enough to retain flexibility and speed. He was the perfect makeup for a shinobi.

_Big shocker there._

She grit her teeth as her hands swept around his shoulders. Only pausing when she reached the junction at his left shoulder and neck, his skin devoid of any marring whatsoever. Her chakra flow to her hands faltered for a moment.

At the cessation of her movement, the Uchiha turned his head to regard the medic with a questioning glance, but the tips of her fingers were already running over the edge of his neck.

If she noticed the way his body stiffened, she refused to mention it as she continued to stare at the spot on where Orochimaru's cursed seal of heaven used to stain the Uchiha's skin- her eyes unfocused as memories of the mark flooded through her. She remembered how terrified she was of him then, so unlike the Sasuke she knew him to be, heartlessly tearing both of the Oto boy's arms from their respective sockets.

Shuddering a little, the movement made her focus on the present.

"Wasn't...Orochimaru's…?" she trailed off.

Sasuke turned his head back forward, averting her gaze.

"Aa."

"What happened…?"

The Uchiha was quiet for a moment, and she wondered if he was ignoring her. As she opened her mouth to press him though, he responded

"Nii-san…"

Her hand drifted over the area where the seal had been once more, this time with adequate chakra flow. She felt no remnants of foreign chakra in his system. Had the seal been completely obliterated? And was it really Itachi-san's doing? How?

"So it's gone? Forever?" her voice shook slightly.

It didn't escape his notice, and Sasuke threw a blank glance over his shoulder, assessing her demeanor for a moment before continuing to face forward once more.

"Hn."

Well, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't relieved. For years, she'd been plagued by nightmares of the mark, and the way it had made Sasuke act.

_Or was that just him?_

Clearly, the little voices in her head were working against her today. Shaking her head a bit, she continued the scan on his torso for several minutes, pausing over his heart, his shoulder again, his stomach…Lightly tapping her hand against his left forearm, she cued him to lift the extremity, and he complied without hesitation. Her hands floated over the limb without pause until she reached the bandages on his forearms he'd neglected to take off.

He jerked a little again when he felt her little fingers gently unwrap the bandages on his wrists. Her little fingers danced around his skin, brushing lightly here and there as she worked. She moved lower still, her shirt giving way to a small tantalizing view, nicely teasing at what she might be hiding underneath…

He obliterated the thought; this was not the time.

_Was there ever a time? _

The thought piqued his attention. Since the war, he'd only seen her a couple of times, once debriefing at hokage tower, and once again at a painfully awkward lunch with Naruto that afternoon.

Up close though, her body was leaner, not as soft anymore. But with underlying curves and movements that were more feminine than fledgling, as he saw her in his youth. For a moment he wondered distastefully whether she had grown up mentally too. As she had yet to throw herself at him, he'd assumed she had.

A small fragment of him was kind of hoping for it, though. Up until the very end, Sakura had been consistent in her feelings. More straight forward and pure than Naruto, her admiration (or obsession) was something he'd gotten used to. It was a consistency he'd come to count on, even in his absence, and he'd used it to his benefit when she had tried (and failed) to bring him back.

...Had he scared her off? As he mentally ticked off the number of times he hadn't thought twice about obliterating her, he supposed it wouldn't have surprised him if he had. Had he really expected that, after everything, she'd still be there waiting at the end of the day? Was that really fair?

In all honesty, he hadn't dwelled on it too much in his absence, though he hadn't dwelled on much of anything. It wasn't as though he really had _feelings _for her. It was only now, when she was in front of him and he was spent, that he even began to question exactly what it meant for her to have him back in Konoha.

As he thought, her fingers, so gently, traced the dual summoning seals tattooed on his wrists before turning to her chart and recreating them on the paper, muttering to herself.

"Two pronged, dual sealing and summoning. Four gate seal... Summoning…" she looked up. "Snakes?" she poked the tattoo the dull edge of her pencil.

His head shook to the side once.

"Hawks. Weapons."

Her eyebrows shot up. Weapons, she could understand. But most shinobi summoned from only one class of beasts, forming a partnership with a particular race. Their animal counterparts had their own hierarchy outside of the villages, for Sasuke to be able to summon both snakes and hawks, a pair that had had their contentions since the beginning of time, it must have taken an enormous amount of power and authority to even earn their respect, much less form a partnership. Was that why he'd gotten the tattoos?

"Do you have another one for snakes then?"

His head turned quickly to the left once again and back.

"No. Blood seals. But Orochimaru, he could…."

He lifted his arm, preferring a demonstration to an elongated explanation. At first Sakura was on the defensive, but there was no malicious intent in his posture. A second later, there was a bulge moving underneath of the skin of Sasukes forearm, tenting the skin before morphing into a snake, still attached to the limb. It was somewhere between white and grey, almost translucent, with golden eyes. It assessed its surroundings quietly, tongue flicking lazily back and forth from its mouth. Slithering forward a bit, it moved up Sasuke's arm, its body moving seamlessly from limb into individuality. It paused against the pulse point of Sasuke's wrist, resting at the accelerated warmth before molding back into Sasuke's skin.

He'd expected her to move, to jot down her observations on the chart, but the space was still next to him. He looked up, and she was more motionless than he anticipated, her mouth had fallen open a little, and her eyes blinked in surprise. Had he surprised her?

"Sorry."

She blinked.

"No, it's...It's...fine." Her hand pulsated green again. "Could you do it again for me?"

Her hand floated through the space above his arm, his palm facing up. At first she felt nothing, but a moment later, she felt a foreign chakra begin to gather at the elbow, elongating itself into a shape of a snake and conjoining itself with Sasuke's life force before moving to make its way through the skin seamlessly again.

_Oh, that's just __**gross.**_

But her face did not betray any emotion as she noted her findings, subsequently asking follow-up questions and jotting down in his answers in a slightly messy thin script in the margins of her papers.

An hour later, she had grazed his entire body with her chakra, poking and prodding in every which way until she felt satisfied. Sasuke accepted it in turn; he knew the necessity of pleasing the higher-ups. As she went on, the silhouette on her pages became increasingly filled with drawings to-scale and notes to match.

After she'd finished noting her nearly nonexistent findings on his lower half, her hand stilled, and she looked up at him. She appeared a little more apprehensive, now vulnerable where she had priorly been confident.

This is what she'd been most worried about, the thing she had most wanted to avoid. Forget past feelings of long lost love and clipped red strings of fate; this was a deal breaker.

Sakura had given herself up to Sasuke before. She'd taken a gamble, offered her entire life and being, and she'd paid dearly for it. She'd been here before, and if it wasn't for her other teammates, she'd have been cold and dead. But she had a job to do, and the full mission notice had been very specific in what intel had wanted her to focus on above all else.

He returned her gaze evenly. He knew what came next; he'd foreseen this the moment he gave in and returned to this place. Regardless of power dynamics, he would be asked to expose himself and his brother's legacy to her scrutiny, and he wasn't exactly jumping at the opportunity.

She spoke out first, confirming that which they'd already concluded.

"I need to see your sharingan."

Suddenly, he felt several chakra signatures spike outside. Two outside the building, two outside the door and one farther off, above. Most were unfamiliar, but the one above was well-known. Kakashi had posted himself on the roof of the building. They were making their presence known. A warning.

He snorted. _So this is how they are going to play it?_

She noticed it too, and if she hadn't anticipated it, she was grateful for the support. If Sasuke decided to turn, she was a goner, but at least he would be apprehended quickly. She clung to the small solace that came with the thought, but put down her charts; it was time to get this over with.

"Sasuke-kun..?"

He looked at her again, and this time, he didn't look away. Her body screamed at her to fidget, to move, but she didn't for once, and for that she was grateful.

He blinked, and blood instantly replaced ink, three tomoe connected by a singular ring stared back at her.

She shook her head.

"No. The others."

His jaw clenched, and he felt the chakra signatures pulse outside once more.

Slowly at first, the tomoe started to stretch and converge in the center, creating a pinwheel.

She breathed, her voice willow_y, "_Mangekyō..."

He could kill her. He could obliterate her mentality into nothingness. Put her into an eternal torture in the prison of her own mind. Destroy everything in between those green eyes.

A calloused hand touched his face and she leaned in closer, studying the irises and their patterns intently.

Swallowing audibly, he activated the eternal Mangekyō. First the left, then the right.

Her little intake of breath gave her away. A quick suction of air in shock, a little gasp that gave away her intentions.

Was it possible to trust someone this much? Had anybody seen him the way she was at that moment without meeting a terrible fate?

She should have been more scared, she realized. A fragment of her was, but it was overshadowed by something else.

They were so….pretty. The symmetrically was enticing.

For so long, his eyes had been so cold, so empty...Calculating. But now the sharingan seemed to be alive and incessant. Vibrant, like they held everything and nothing at all at the same time. Like it was dragging her in…

She was leaning in without even consciously aware of it. Her breath mingled with his, and the prolonged eye contact brought chills to both of them. And in that moment, they were on the same plane, on the same ground for once.

But he was at his limit. She was getting closer, and the intimacy of the moment coupled with her proximity made him want to crawl the walls. He settled for averting his gaze to the side, down to the table.

She jumped back with a start and a miniscule squeak.

_Cute. _

the thought appeared into his mind in response to the little sound on its own accord, but like the others, he banished it immediately.

She was still recovering though,

"Uh...I-…" She gave up on her endeavor to articulate a coherent thought and turned to her chart, flipping to a new page, drawing and jotting down notes furiously for a few minutes, shading in the darker parts of her sketches. She glanced shyly over to him, but he was still staring at the examination table like it had the secrets to the universe.

"Thank you for showing me, Sasuke-kun."

His response was weighted and quipped,

"Don't mention it."

She could have imagined it, but the lightest of pinks seemed to have dusted his cheek bones.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, and thank you for reading this far! (Did you guys make it? Was it a rough ride? That was too many pages, wasn't it?) Welcome to Four Heartbeats After the Fact, or 4HBATF for short (...short?). I realize this was more than long winded, and I hope that it didn't scare you off! Hope you enjoy, and you stick around with me for this new adventure. More Sasusaku to come~<strong>

**Oh, and I'm always down for constructive-criticism and reviews, so shoot me one if you feel like it and I may reply (woot woot)!**

** Buh-duh-buuuh. Until next time, cuties.**

**Amy**


	2. Chapter 2: Four Gulps After the Fact

_**Several weeks later...**_

He sighed again when he finally stepped over the threshold of the Uchihas' lands, the overbearing archway and gate still standing prominently despite the dilapidation that had happened with years of vacancy. Maybe he'd put in a mission request for some genin to clean the place up eventually?

He walked through the streets as quietly as possible. He wasn't one for believing in ghosts or haunted entities, but there was definitely an eerie feeling in the air here.

He made his way up to the old apartment complex was a popular place for young people of the clan to start back in the day, previously filled with kids who had moved up the shinobi ranks high enough to fully support themselves and new couples who were still in the market for a more permanent residence.

His childhood home was still empty too of course, but there were some memories he would rather leave untouched. The mere thought of passing over the threshold made him want to puke.

Jogging up three flights of stairs, he threw open the door at the end of the hallway to the right; he rarely locked it as of late. No one had the audacity to step foot here, and even if they did, they wouldn't find much, save for some ninjutsu scrolls he'd already memorized and fully mimicked with his sharingan.

Kicking off his shoes at the door, he fell on his old bed gracelessly and stared at the ceiling, letting his muscles fall slack as he sank into the mattress and feeling the weight that plagued him whenever it found an opportunity to press into him once more in his subdued state. He wanted to run away from this, from complex life and necessary niceties and misguided hated, but where could he go?

The alternatives were slim. Whether he liked it or not, Konoha had been his birthplace, and he had already given himself unconditionally to the state. Due to the new-found shinobi alliance, finding another country to grant him amnesty would be far from likely if he ran, regardless of whether he saved the world or not, as ludicrous as it sounded. He huffed and turned to his side, curling up on himself like a cat. He supposed he could have continued to live nameless and on the run for the rest of his life, but his pride wouldn't allow it. The uchiwa pressed on his back a sacred namesake that would never leave him, practically branded into his skin rather than his clothing. It would always give him away, a tell-tale sign of its bearer. Would he really be able to cover it up, or worse, remove it? Dispose of it like the rest of his past, wiping his hands clean of the others' blood? The Uchiha clan deserved better than that.

_Didn't they?_

He blinked once. Shoving himself off of his bed and away from that train of thought. He had long since given up on trying to rationalize his clan's and his brother's actions. It wasn't their fault; they were but pawns played in a larger, convoluted picture. The thought made his stomach heave and his forehead to break out in sweat.

_enough._

Shoving his window open, he threw himself into the night, looking for a village displayed before him, a hodgepodge of scrapped buildings and telephone poles, the cobblestone and paved roads stretching out like veins through a body, slowing down with the sunset.

But even with them reaching to the horizon, he knew he wouldn't get very far; the walls of the village were always within in sight, caging him in.

Gritting his teeth, he shot forward to the center of the fray, his footfalls hitting against the roofs of buildings lightly as he propelled himself towards the north end of the city.

To hokage tower.

He moved quickly through the building, clinging to the empty hallways, more comfortable in the shadows than elsewhere. It was mostly empty, but as he got closer to the office, he noted several secretaries and guards shuffling about, eyeing him warily and talking amongst themselves behind cupped hands.

_Sheep._

The guard stationed outside of the office gave a start as Sasuke emerged from the harsh shadows that had been cast from the sunset though the archaic ventilation windows of the ancient building. They had clearly not expecting direct visitors at this hour.

"Stop! What is your business, Uchiha?" His surname fell off of the guard's tongue like venom, and Sasuke had the mind not to snap the man's neck with his fingers.

He paused anyways, shoving his hands in his pockets, a habit he'd procured in his youth, "I need to talk to the sixth."

The man became more defiant,

"Like hell-"

But before the guard could finish, he was cut off by one of the massive doors to the main office groaning as it swung open slightly.

The head of a very tired looking Shikamaru Nara appeared seconds later in the newly formed crevice. He glared sideways at his guards at either side of the doors,

"Tch. So troublesome. Just send him in already." He looked up and met the Uchiha's glance and threw a cocky smirk his way.

"Have to say, I wasn't expecting your ugly mug to show up on my door." He rubbed his jaw in thought, "or if I did, it was in the custody of guards after trying to escape." The Uchiha might have responded, but the hokage waved a disinterested hand in his general direction, effectively interrupting the Uchiha.

"So are you gonna come in or what?"

Sasuke wanted to turn on his heel and walk right out in spite, but he stepped into the office with nothing more than a sideways glance at the guard that had stopped him.

Walking into the office once more was a fairly nostalgic experience. He'd been here before when he discussed the terms and conditions of his granted amnesty, but that had been a muddled blur. Now, with the harsh light of the setting sun beating directly into the expansive windows that covered the north side of the office, he was brought back to the times in which he reported here with team seven after a completed (or failed) mission.

Those were the days, weren't they?

"What can I do for you, Uchiha?"

It felt strange, answering to someone his age. He had no doubts about Shikamaru's competence to make adequate decisions on the village's welfare, despite an arrogance that rivaled his own. Still though, he wondered if the Nara heir was really cut out for the job. Sasuke himself sought the position of hokage after learning the truth behind the motivations of Konoha's leaders, but quickly let that notion go at the cessation of the war when Shikamaru stepped up to the plate. Nara, at least, had the empathy and the knowledge necessary to guide a village in a peacetime without becoming corrupt, something Sasuke himself lacked.

"I want a mission."

The hokage let out an elaborate, audible sigh. "You know, I can't really do that."

The Uchiha's jaw clenched and his hands balled up in to fists. The hokage noted his change in posture with a lift of his eyebrows, suddenly interested. Was the Uchiha really going to attack him?

"You are still under probation indefinitely. You haven't made any progress within the village, and despite your efforts in the war, more of the town's people are afraid of you than accepting. Do you really think I can get away with sending out a traitor like you back into the fray? For any reason?"

"An escort?"

"Are you really so confident to think that there are missions which only you could pull off?"

The Uchiha only stared pointedly at the sixth, and the man exhaled profoundly again. They both knew that Sasuke was an invaluable power source, second only in some ways to Naruto.

Shikamaru rubbed his head in thought as they came to the conclusion simultaneously, "Well, if you were to be sent out, I need to do it under a subordinate position with people who," he started ticking off fingers "are capable enough to handle you if you were to potentially get out of hand and," another finger "know your patterns well enough to stand a chance one on one in case the other is taken out."

Logically, that would be Naruto and Kakashi. Naruto for the sheer force and familiarity. Kakashi for the sharingan compatibility and as a buffer between himself and the idiot, but as soon as Sasuke voiced his thoughts, Shikamaru was already shaking his head.

"Standard operating procedure decrees that teams over two must have an accompanying med-nin. Now tell me, who fits the criteria needed for your escort?"

It was a rhetorical question, but his thoughts answered for his mouth.

_Sakura._

"So reunite team seven." the Uchiha answered.

"Do you understand exactly what you're asking for? Have you thought about how they felt about it?"

"Naruto and Kakashi-"

The hokage cut him off sharply, "And Sakura? Have you thought about what it would do to her?"

That stopped Sasuke, but Shikamaru carried on,

"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, Sasuke, but you really messed her up when you left. She was inconsolable for months. And on various accounts, she has periodically shown a lack of reasoning when it comes to you. Do you really know what you're asking for when you waltz in here demanding missions?"

He didn't. Not really. He knew Sakura's feelings had persisted long after his departure from Konoha, that much had been made apparent after she failed to kill him when she was given the chance. It was in her eyes that day as he held her up after she'd collapsed from chakra exhaustion during the war. The attachment might have not been same as it had been when they were young, but it was still apparent, if he bothered to acknowledge it.

How bad had he left her though? Was she really as hopeless as Shikamaru attested to? Their last moments together before he left was a clear testament to her feelings, but his need for vengeance at the time had outweighed her admiration by a landslide. He'd expected her to get over her schoolgirl crush in time. How long had she stayed behind, mourning their- her loss?

He knew it wasn't fair to ask of her. She'd put on a brave face during the medical scrutinization, but he'd noticed her hands shaking on several occasions and she had scarcely breathed during the visit.

Was there no one who could replace her in the field?

Her superior, maybe. The kunoichi who had followed the fifth, Sakura's upperclassmen. But she was now the head of medicinal affairs for the entire village. If Nara even let this mission slide, it wouldn't be enough to call the dark-haired kunoichi off work, not when Sakura was perfectly capable.

The more he thought about it, the more logic pushed him into a corner. He wanted to go forward with the plan and ask Sakura, but there was a piece of him that questioned the morality of it. Naruto and Kakashi, he could put up with; they would understand. But Sakura? She would understand, but how much would she give up to do so? Was it fair to place his needs over hers? Could he do that? Again?

His hands balled up in frustration once more, and it was all he could do not to lash out, to hit something.

"There is nothing you can do….?" It wasn't a question so much as a statement.

"I can forward it to the council and discuss the options with Sakura, if you permit it."

He stood there and weighed his options. He could walk out the door or he could see this through. Despite his lineage, Sasuke trusted Shikamaru. He was one of the few who stood behind him when he returned to the fire country.

But he was done.

"Do what you have to." he muttered before stalking out.

"I'll do what I can, Sasuke." Shikamaru amended.

* * *

><p>Ichiraku's was unusually quiet tonight, the small ramen shop reeking of alcohol and salt and warmth, empty but for one person.<p>

"Can I get another, Teuchi-san?" Sakura drawled quietly as she shook the empty sake bottle gently at the owner's direction.

The owner grabbed the bottle before promptly placing another down with a slight look of paternal worry in his eyes.

This was a common occurrence. After years of shadowing the fifth, Sakura had eventually given in to her mentor's seemingly constant invitations to join her for a bottle or four of saké, much to Shizune's dismay. Now, several months later, Sakura could guzzle down the rice wine with the best of them, nothing but a dusky rose painting her cheeks and a boisterous attitude reminiscent of her former teacher. It never became an issue for anyone but Shizune, who had reprised her role as caretaker, helping her junior stumble home after prolonged benders or intervening in particularly heated fights the pink haired kunoichi had become so good at picking lately, just like their mentor before her. Shizune always reacted as if these nights were the bane of her existence, but Sakura was under the impression that the older woman didn't really mind. It had definitely brought the two closer, especially after Tsunade's passing.

But even with her affinity for poking fun under the influence, Sakura's mind was too heavy to tease Ayame or Teuchi tonight, still emotionally drained and recovering from all the happenings revolving around a certain raven-haired shinobi lately. It had been a handful of weeks since she'd gone through with her mission, and she hadn't seen a hair of him since. She was almost grateful for that, but the experience had hit her hard. The drinks only did so much to tame the tornado of emotions raging their way through her.

A long sight grazed her ears from behind, and a very tired looking Shikamaru Nara flopped into the stool directly to her right, lifting off his enormous hokage hat and flicking it on the counter. Behind the wooden barrier, Ayame squeaked in surprise and Teuchi snapped into attention, bowing profoundly,

"It is our deepest pleasure to serve you, Hokage-sama!"

Shikamaru just rubbed the back of his head roughly though and chuckled lightly before waving off the praise lightly. Sakura glanced sideways, noting the exchange with feigned disinterest. It seemed that his position of power had softened the Nara heir up a bit, particularly around civilians. He still kept up his general lack of interest in anything he deemed too troublesome (most things), but Sakura failed to remember any hokage being as kind, at least not since the third. A small, bitter smirk found its way to her features as she silently wondered if a relationship between him and a certain blonde-haired liaison of Sunagakure had anything to do with his recently acquired compassion.

"I'm not so sure you're old enough to consuming such things," he flicked a finger lightly against her sake bottle, "even if you are the fifth's student," he finally spoke up.

She rolled her eyes and barked out a laugh. While the consumption of things like cigarettes and alcohol by minors was still frowned upon, it was not uncommon to see shinobi as young as thirteen partaking in them. Store owners wouldn't sell it to grade schoolers or genins, but with the mortality rate being as high as it was for shinobi, there weren't very many adults who would refuse anyone at a chun-nin level or above. It was a sad predicament, and one that was quickly falling out of favor in the recent peace time, but she figured if she was old enough to put her life on the line when she was only sixteen years old, she was old enough to drink. She retorted in kind,

"That's funny, coming from someone who picked up his teacher's smoking habit at one point, Hokage-_sama._"

The boy's eyebrows shot straight up at the noticeable sourness in her tone and the added sarcasm that had been slathered all over the honorific. Teuchi visibly blanched behind the counter. Like seemingly all the women he had grown up with, Sakura had a particularly feisty attitude that made itself apparent more often than not in their academy days, but Shikamaru had spent his entire childhood avoiding any situation that may have brought it out, preferring instead to stand on the sidelines as he watched Naruto take the brunt of her temper. It may have just been a side effect from the alcohol, though he supposed she had more than enough reason to be angry with him lately.

"Temporarily," he corrected her conversationally.

She rolled her eyes again. As if it mattered.

"To what do I owe the pleasure? Was the intel report on Sasuke-kun inadequate?"

He ignored the question. The report was more than adequate, and they both knew it. He nodded curtly once to Ayame as she slid a cup of tea over the counter to him.

"I'm sorry for that. I didn't exactly have a lot of options; I had limited choices in the matter."

Her eyebrow twitched.

"Yeah, well. So did I."

He sighed. It wasn't exactly like he didn't deserve this. He'd seen Sakura fresh off the pavement after Sasuke had left the first time, and he knew he'd asked a lot of her in the past few weeks. Which made the next few words out of his mouth that much harder,

"I need a favor."

She nodded. Shikamaru, while definitely one of the warmer hokages of their age, was not known to leave his tower without reason, still getting acclimated to his workload as village leader.

"Uchiha visited me earlier today."

Her hand gripped tighter on the edge of the table at the sound of his name, and it didn't escape Shikamaru's notice. He continued,

"Looks like hell. Sounds like he's slipping. Wants to leave the village-"

Sakura's head whipped to the side, pink locks flying out to the sides of her head with the movement before falling back into place against her cheekbones. Shikamaru met her gaze evenly, watching as his words seemingly stabbed into her chest. Bottle-green eyes widened and brimmed with tears almost immediately.

"-temporarily," he finished.

She remained frozen for another second as the words sunk in again, numbing the stab wound he'd left earlier.

_Temporarily._

_Temporarily._

_Not forever._

She swallowed, frustratingly biting back the tears that had showed up seemingly out of nowhere, embarrassed to show weakness in front of the Hokage. Fixing her features, she composed herself and turned towards the counter again, staring straight ahead.

Her face remained stoic even as her voice betrayed her, cracking once, "For how long?"

Shikamaru shook his head.

"He just wants a mission. He's getting finicky having not left since his return, but he's still on probation. Within his amnesty agreement, he shouldn't be able to leave just yet, but..."

She almost wanted to smile at the adjective Shikamaru had used to describe Sasuke-kun. Finicky. Like he was stray cat that had only wanted attention when he permitted it. Her teeth clenched as she swallowed the bitter laugh that threatened to slip out at the accuracy of the comparison.

The hokage carried on unbeknownst to her nonverbal ramblings,

"I'm slim on options here... I can stronghold the council into letting him out for a mission, but only under the right conditions."

But Sakura had already put two and two together. If Shikamaru was to let Sasuke-kun out of his probation for any reason, he would need to do it under a subordinate position with people who were capable enough to handle him. It wasn't hard to connect the rest of the dots.

But even as the picture came together, she mentally wiped away the image. Completely foregoing her cup, she took a long pull from the sake bottle in hopes to distract herself from the truth. Shikamaru watched her take gulps from the rice wine, counting her swallows- _one, two, three, four_- until she pulled her lips away from the lip of the ceramic and gasped for breath.

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him I'd talk to you."

So she held the cards here. Great. Her brain told her to run, to slam down enough money to cover her tab, tell Shikamaru to screw himself, and storm out.

But her twelve-year-old self pulled on her heartstrings and begged her to reconsider. It was Sasuke-kun.

"How long would it be?"

Shikamaru stared into his tea, "three days, tops."

Could she do that? Suck it up for three days for Sasuke's sake? Did she really owe him that?

But it wasn't about owing anyone anything. She was given two options, and she had to pick the one she could live with. It wasn't that she was particularly opposed to going; in fact, the larger part of her, her heart, jumped at the opportunity, quietly fluttering at the possibility of a nostalgic trip down memory lane, sleeping with her team under the stars again for the first time in years.

But cold hard logic held her back. They weren't the same as they were four years ago, Sasuke had left a hole in all of them when he'd left and the reminder of the ways her team had changed often felt like a swift punch to the gut. They would never be the same again. Could they? More importantly, would she be able to stand it if they couldn't?

"Where does Sai fit in all of this?"

Shikamaru shook his head to the side once.

"I've got him working back in root. I can't exactly put all of my strongest assets on one team."

_Oh, but you can put all three of the new-age sannin and the one man who is competent enough to replace you on one team? Right._

She sighed.

"What do you want from me, Shikamaru?"

"I want you to do what you need to. Whatever you think is best, Sakura."

"Even if it's not best for him?"

The hokage shrugged. "As far as I see it, Sasuke-kun made his choice. He made his bed, he can lay at it for all I care. But if your interests coincide, I see no reason to irk him unnecessarily."

He pushed himself off of his stool, threw down enough money to cover both of their tabs,

"Just stew on it for a bit. Let me know when you decide."

He tipped his wide brim hat and waved to Ayame and Teuchi before walking off.

Ayame quickly picked up the tab, and bowed at the waist.

"Thank you, hokage-sama!"

Sakura watched him go, and tapped lightly against her bottle with her an index finger.

"...Can I get another?"

* * *

><p>Shikamaru flopped on his bed, stretching and popping out the seemingly ever-present kinks in his neck. This job was getting more and more troublesome as the weeks went on. It was worth it though, he supposed, if he could continue the village and make a better life for the future generations. Still, as he gazed out his window, he wished he had the freedom of the clouds in the sky, wispy and close to the moon.<p>

As it was a breeze gently caressed his face, the smell of sand and heat and desert shrubs gently prodding at his senses.

A small white-gray ermine moved from the shadows in the corner of his flat, scampering next to him and jumping lithely on the window sill.

"Anything new?"

Kamatari didn't say anything, only dropping something small and light at his side before huffing defiantly and disappearing with a _pwohf! _

He smirked at the stand-offish nature of the familiar, so similar to its summoner. He looked at his side and picked up the fragile object, pulling gently on its tail and making its wings flap. If he held the minuscule paper crane close to his face, the faintest trace of her favorite perfume clung onto its crisp edges.

He sighed longingly.

This job really was troublesome.


	3. Chapter 3: Four Counts After the Fact

She wasn't exactly what you would call a morning person.

The light of the early sun gently caressed her closed eyelids, and she squinted in her sleep once before flipping over and promptly shoving her head beneath her pillow. It was far too early to be alive, as far as she was concerned, and she could feel the edges of a legendary hangover pressing in on the sides of her head.

Her alarm clock came alive seemingly moments later though, and she groaned, squishing the pillow closer to the sides of her head.

She told herself mentally that she could only put of the day for so long. Pulling herself upright and yawned, she ran a hand through a rats' nest of tangles that had made themselves home in her tresses last night. Typical.

It was her day off today. No work, no missions, no boys. Her jaw clenched at the thought of the latter. She ordered her body to move to her washroom, yanking a brush from her nightstand quickly through her coral locks as she did so. She roughly turned the faucet of her sink on before impatiently shoving her hands in the still cold water. Patience was not exactly her forte.

Pulling her head upwards, she found verdigris eyes staring back at her, slightly droopy with a barely-there consciousness. She had always hated her eyes, she decided. Not quite green but not quite blue, like they couldn't make up their mind.

_How fitting._

She shoved herself away from the sink, hastily shutting the water before stomping into the kitchen part of her flat, yanking a box of strawberry cereal off the top of the fridge. She put together her breakfast quickly, opting for simplicity over taste. It wasn't uncommon for her to be in a bad mood before noon, but usually her irritability was attributed more to the sun's position than anything else.

Clearly some training was in order.

* * *

><p>She breezed through the streets semi-aimlessly; she had a set spot in mind but was in no particular hurry to arrive.<p>

The main streets were bustling today, probably due to the sheer cheerfulness of the weather. The heat was balmy, but not overly so, and the sky was blue- not a cloud to be seen. She chuckled a little at the thought of Shikamaru having none of them to distract him from his office work, and she didn't feel the least bit sorry for the new hokage.

Mothers shuffled about the various markets with fidgety children and babes in tow. Academy brats ran around playing shinobi, and she hoped that was as close to the profession that they would ever have to be. So many people in the village recognized her now. Before the age of 13, she could have been invisible. However, the longer she walked, the more strangers smiled and gave little waves in her direction. She smiled and waved back of course; she didn't save all the people in world just to ignore them later.

It was a quarter of an hour later when she arrived at her destination, the newly replaced shingles of the shop reflecting light like all of the other reconstructed buildings on the street. A large purple sign stood on the roof to the right side of the building. From the street, one could barely make out the purple flags that ran across the ceiling just inside the entryway, all stamped with the telltale white circular emblem of the Yamanaka clan. Lined outside the shop were various shrubs and bonsais for sale, and the windows and doors were pushed open to let the sunshine and occasional breeze.

She let herself into the little shop, perusing the varied and vases all filled with flowers. Lilies and gardenias gleamed and shimmered next to each other, and as her eyes caught sight of some daffodils in a pot to the right of the front counter, she felt the smallest of pangs land in her chest.

It had been years since she'd picked out that particular flower to give to Sasuke after he recovered from his first fight with Itachi. He'd been so broken then, letting her hug him without putting up a fight-

"Forehead!"

Sakura snapped up from her thoughts to see her friend prancing around the counter with her arms outstretched, long pony-tail and bangs bouncing. The blonde threw her arms around her best friend, and Sakura hugged her back tightly, more for her best friend than herself. The loss of her father in the war had left Ino more than a little depressed, despite his last message's sincerity. And while the blonde _had_ surely gotten stronger in the process of the war, Sakura had found Ino crying by herself several times since. Sakura had seen her spending a lot of time with Choji's father lately, swapping stories of the late Yamanaka clan head over countless grills of meat and hot pots.

Maybe that was why she spent so much time at hokage tower lately too. Maybe talking to Shikamaru about their shared experiences helped her cope. Regardless of the reasons, Sakura was glad Ino had someone to confide in besides her.

"Hey, Ino-pig."

"What are you doing here! I swear to god, I only ever see you at the hospital now!"

Sakura grimaced, "Don't remind me," she said sourly.

"Do they ever let you out?"

"It's not that they wouldn't if they could. Maybe if some med-nin stitched their teammates up a little better, it wouldn't be an issue."

Ino rolled her eyes elaborately, "Oh, please. No-one's had to heal any of my team since I was fifteen and you know it!"

"Yeah well, you can't expect much action for chun-nins, can you?" Sakura winked at her best friend, "I mean, it's not like you get anything higher than a B-rank mission every once in a while," she teased.

"Well, we can't _all_ save the world, can we?"

The two girls burst out into giggles, playfully knocking at each other.

After Ino gained her composure, she straightened up a little, "So what brings you in? Looking for a splash of color for your dinky apartment or…" she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, "...Do you want some get-well flowers for a particular patient that caught your eye?"

It was Sakura's turn to roll her eyes, "Neither. I came looking for you." Ino tipped her head to the side in question.

"Do you want to spar or-" but Ino was already shaking her head. She moved away from Sakura to the far side of the shop and busied herself with arranging several flowers in a jade colored pot, positioning them this way and that to make them seem more appealing for sale.

"I'm not much of a fighter these days, Sak. Call me crazy, but I think I've seen enough of it in my lifetime. I mean, I'll go out on missions as a med-nin every once in a while, but with Shikamaru being promoted, Ino-Shika-Cho is kind of nonexistent nowadays." She turned to Sakura and smiled her brightest, "Besides, we're in peacetime now. Why are you constantly going out to the falls and forest to hone skills you shouldn't even have to use? You're already in a three-way tie for being the strongest in the village."

She had a point, but Sakura was really hoping Ino would agree to a mock battle. Without her, her training would probably amount to punching trees and knifing fish only to bring them back to life again. But even that was preferrable to dragging an uncooperative Ino to the fields.

"No, you're right. I guess I'll just walk around today then, see ya." The strawberry blonde turned on her heel and started to walk out, but a firm hand caught her wrist.

"Wait, no. You came here for a reason, and you don't ask to train with someone else unless you need to blow off steam. What's wrong?"

She gritted her teeth, "It's nothing, Ino. I'll figure it out," she pulled forward again, only to be pulled back again.

"Don't give me that. What is it?"

Sakura could break out of her grip if she wanted to; it would have been so easy, just like blinking, nothing more than a hair's length of strength. Something was wrong with her face. Her eyes started to get hot and watered.

A fraction of a second later, Ino was hauling her best friend by the wrist towards the entrance, untying her own shop apron, pulling it off of her head and throwing it behind the counter with her free hand all the while.

She called over her shoulder, "Mom! I'm taking off for a bit! Take care of the shop when I'm gone, 'kay? Come on, forehead, a new shop opened up down on the east side. They've got this new drink from Kirigakure called boba tea that I've been_ dying_ to try!"

The pinkette let out a little laugh at her friend and pulled her arm free but otherwise followed her down the street, returning the smiles and greetings they got from various townspeople and fellow shinobi on the way.

The shop was cute, pastel colors hung everywhere, and the tea was pretty tasty. But it wasn't long until Ino started her interrogation. The blonde was so intense, her questions so acute that she wondered whether interrogation methods were hereditary in the Yamanka clan.

"So what is it?"

Sakura sighed. She could tell her, she supposed. Shinobi relations weren't exactly for civilian ears, but the shop was pretty desolate, and Ino was as close to Shikamaru as it got. Still, she was hesitant to broach the subject. Sakura was sure her best friend's affection for the Uchiha had simmered down into mere appreciation for good looks, but whether or not the blonde still held a grudge against him was an entirely different matter.

"Shikamaru wants me to take a mission."

Ino's eyebrows came down in confusion, "And? It's not like you haven't had one of those before."

Strawberry blonde locks shook back and forth with the movement of her head, "No. He wants me to go on a mission...With the rest of team seven."

Ino continued to stare at her with a puzzled expression, still not quite catching on, "Did something happen between you and Sai? or Naruto?"

Sakura let out a breath and raked a hand through her hair before placing it back on the cold sides of her tea, a tiny "_baka_" came out under her breath. But before Ino could protest, Sakura spat out,

"Not Sai. Sasuke. He wants to reunite the original team seven. With Sasuke-kun."

Ino rarely grew quiet, but this was one of the few exceptions.

"Oh," she finally muttered the syllable, "Wait, isn't he on probation!?"

Sakura nodded, "but apparently he's getting antsy. He approached Shikamaru on his own."

Ino let out a low whistle, "Kid's still got guts, I'll give him that. What did you tell Shikamaru?"

"Didn't give me a chance to say anything. He said it was my choice whether or not to go and then split."

"And do you want to go or not?"

"Yes. . . No...I don't know, Ino. It's complicated."

The blonde rolled her eyes again, "Yeah, well I could've told you that."

"You know the sarcasm? _Really_ not helping."

"Sorry," Ino paused and sat back in her chair, grabbing her tea and swirling it with a straw, "Well, if you ask me, I don't think you should have to go. Sasuke dug his own grave. No need to take you down with him, if you know what I mean."

Sakura nodded glumly, "Shikamaru said the same thing."

"So do what we say!"

"I wish I could, Ino. I just...I can't help but feel like that wouldn't be the right thing, ya know? He's my teammate, and he needs something only I can give. Wouldn't it be wrong to turn him away?"

The blonde reached a comforting hand to her best friend's and didn't speak until the pinkette looked up at her.

"Not if it means jeopardizing yourself," she squeezed Sakura's hand once, "Look, if you want to go because you think it's right then you should go.…If only to get some closure." Ino smiled gently at her friend and was happy to see the gesture reciprocated.

"Thanks, Pig."

"Whatever, Forehead."

* * *

><p>"I'll do it."<p>

Shikamaru cracked a smirk, not having to look up from his paperwork to know it was Sakura Haruno standing before his desk, out of breath, chest still heaving slightly with effort. His all-but-useless guards tationed by the front door of his office looked up helplessly at the hokage, torn between their duty to apprehend any and all unexpected intruders and their natural instinct of self-preservation, all too aware that they wouldn't last .4 seconds against the new-age sannin.

"You know, somehow that doesn't surprise me," he continued as he stamped another hokage approved seal onto another document and placing it into its respective pile before finally dragging his eyes to meet the strawberry blonde's.

"When do we start?" she said, the words sounding more like a statement than a question.

The hokage quirked an eyebrow. For someone who was in tears at the prospect of this mission, Sakura seemed to have no reservations in the way she carried herself. It wasn't unlike the kunoichi, but, while he'd come to understand her feelings for the Uchiha in the recent years, he'd also become accustomed to working around her at times when she'd proven useless in curbing her affection for Sasuke.

"Whenever you see fit," Shikamaru pulled the top right drawer of his desk, withdrawing a scroll and tossing it in her general direction. Sakura unbound the parchment and pulled it apart, skimming its contents,

"You're going to Sunagakure. You'll be exchanging hard to find medicinal herbs and anti-toxins between the villages as an act of goodwill toward the village hidden in the sand,"

The hokage rolled his eyes, as if such formalities were remotely necessary. Naruto was absurdly chummy with the Kazekage, and Shikamaru had acquired various networks within the upper ranks of the village hidden in the sand. Not to mention that Sakura herself had saved the kazekage's brother from certain death during the war.

He sighed and continued, "On paper, it will look as though I am sending you in particular for your prowess in medicinal affairs. And Naruto by default will have to go because he's the hero of Konoha and the Kazekage's best friend. Of course, we can't send our two biggest assets in the village without-" he made little imaginary quotation marks with raised fingers, "-'body guards'"

So that's how he's justifying bringing Sasuke and Kakashi. That was just like Shikamaru, appeasing the council or anyone else that might oppose him by telling them what they want to hear, while pushing his own agenda from the sidelines- the perfect way to simultaneously shirk responsibility in addition to getting the higher-ups off of his back. Genius.

Sakura started rolling up the scroll again,

"I can be ready in a week. I need to time to make sure the hospital won't fall to the ground if I'm not there."

"Great. I'll notify the others," the hokage raised his right hand disinterestedly. An ANBU member flashed stepped into his vicinity on the Nara's right side.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"Go round-up Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke. I would like to speak to them immediately."

If the ANBU member was surprised, his feline porcelain mask failed to show it.

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" He was gone just as quickly as he came, and Shikamaru glanced back at Sakura, but all he saw was her back as she breezed through the massive door on the way out, effectively startling the guards again as she did so.

The hokage sighed again.

He had to get some better staff.

* * *

><p>He was at the docks by the Uchiha grounds when the ANBU member sought him out. His feet barely scraped the edge of the water as he watched a blood orange sun sink below the horizon line, and he flinched when he felt the almost imperceptible, but undeniable presence of someone behind him. Who'd be stupid enough to-<p>

"Uchiha Sasuke. The Hokage requests your immediate summon to the tower."

He pulled himself up with a little more effort than a normal person should need, not exactly excited to answer to anyone. Rather than respond though, he decided to just head straight there, launching himself into the air with as much grace as anyone. The ANBU member was never far behind, and as he cut through the city lights of the village, he entertained the thought of attempting to lose the man, potentially putting the man's credibility at risk if he did end up losing his charge, but Sasuke figured he'd better tolerate his assigned follower if he wanted a decent chance at ever leaving this place.

When he arrived at the Hokage's office, he found that Naruto and Kakashi are already there, The sixth hokage sat behind his desk, elbows on the wood and fingers laced in front of his face but not hiding his critical expression.

"Hah, Teme! I beat you," Naruto cried, forever finding a reason to be proud of himself.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the blonde's petty attempts to one-up him, and Kakashi briefly wondered whether Naruto would have flourished better under Guy's teachings and not his own based solely on his affinity for picking fights with his "rival."

Naruto continued, regardless, "So what is it, Shikamaru? Got a mission for us, huh? Are we in trouble? Because if this is about the accident in the training fields last week, I-"

The hokage held up a hand disinterestedly, "Can it, Naruto. We're still waiting on one more."

As if on cue, Sakura breezed through the doors before coming to a stop next to Naruto, throwing him a little wink before facing the Nara heir and giving him a curt nod to which he returned.

If Sasuke was surprised to see her, it didn't show on his face, though that didn't mean much. Truthfully, he _was _surprised to see her, given the awkwardness of their last encounter. Had this meant she'd agreed to the idea of a mission? Or was this Nara's way of asking her?

His questions were addressed a moment later though when Shikamaru continued once more, "Right. Well, it has come to my attention that it might benefit the entirety of the village if _someone-_" his eyes cut pointedly to Sasuke, "-got a bit of fresh air. Lucky enough, the head of medicinal affairs has put forth a mission notice that corresponds, more or less, with team seven's respective skills and connections," the hokage tossed the mission scroll in the senior officer's direction before continuing, "There's been a high demand for medicinal anti-toxins found in the southwest as of late, and we're running short. You'll cross borders, meet the liaison, acquire the anti-toxins, and exchange valued medications, and return- all underneath Kakashi's command. Does anybody have any complaints?"

The Uchiha heir's breath held for a second, and it did not escape his senior's notice. As it was, Kakashi had already glanced towards his former-female student, gauging for any possible reactions that would give away her hesitancy, but she simply just looked unperturbed. Did that mean Shikamaru had gotten to her first? Why would he send them to Sunagakure, a much farther and more difficult journey than someplace like Kirigakure.

Shikamaru took another second to glance at each of the ninja in turn, waiting for any to voice their distaste. When none came, he spoke up again, "You have seven days to give our medicinal department time to do an inventory check and arrange supplies. If no one else has anything to add, you are free to leave," he cracked a knowing smirk before returning to his paper work.

"Hell, yeah! What are we waiting for!? Let's go pack! Team seven! Just like in the old days" Naruto threw his fist up in the air in excitement.

Sasuke actually cracked a small smile. He turned to where Sakura was standing, to do...what, exactly? But as he did so, he only caught a glimpse of her back as she left, giving a half wave to Kakashi as she went. He would've thought on it further, if it hadn't been for Naruto jumping on his back,

"Woo, Teme! Welcome back!"

The raven-haired man's temper flared immediately at the intrusion of personal space,

"Tch. Get off, Dobe," he threw a half-hearted elbow towards his teammate, and the blonde complied willingly enough, yielding to the demand only to walk and talk excitedly about his former teammate about the 'good 'ole days.'

Sasuke stalked off towards his female teammate despite this, walking quickly through the door and startling the guards just outside it. But as he looked forward for the pink-haired kunoichi, he saw she was already down the length of the massive hallway in just moments. When had she gotten so fast?

His pride bit back at him from the recesses of his skull. He'd be damned if he let her get away without saying something. She was fast, but he was faster by far. He set a pace after her, suppressing the temptation to just flash step by her side.

The remaining two members of Team seven gazes fell on each other in question, eyebrows raised, before turning to the hokage in a similar fashion. Shikamaru's head was still in his paperwork, but Kakashi doubted the hokage had just missed his students' exit,

"Don't look at me," the pineapple head clipped, "I saw **_nothing_**."

Back in the hall, Sasuke set his focus on the tell-tale emblem on his female comrade's back, a simple white circle that had marked her through her childhood. He'd never asked about it- was it just a fondness of design, a fledgling clan marking? Not likely. His footfalls fell heavier than usual as he pressed into the jade ceramic tiles, wanting to catch her but not wanting to expend too much effort to do so.

The pinkette turned sharply, walking out where the floor length, open air windows met the slanting orange shingle-covered awning surrounding hokage tower. She jumped lithely downwards, her feet making a little tap on impact, before shooting forth again. The Uchiha's anger spiked into rage. She knew he was behind her, and if her behavior during their youth was any indicator, she was not one to use windows as an exit, preferring to stick to the same stairs and doors that civilians used, probably more out of politeness than anything. Unless she'd had a change in heart in terms of social norms and etiquette in the past few years, she was clearly avoiding him. An inference that set the raven haired man's blood to boil. He took off after her, foregoing the awning altogether and landing on the ground again from a farther height before stalking after the pink-haired kunoichi. She was only a few feet away now, and hey had garnered the attention of a few civilians in the local street on which they walked.

"Sakura," Sasuke ground out under his breath exasperatedly. Sakura continued to feign ignorance though, continuing to stalk off with the Uchiha trailing behind her.

He probably wouldn't have done it if she'd said something. At least, that's what he told himself. And Sasuke didn't do too well with being ignored. He threw his arm out, catching the edge of her hand in his.

She froze. Her feet planted in place, and he had to stop himself short to avoid running into her. She would definitely make it a point to start walking with her arms crossed, as apparently her normal gait was not enough to stop her friends from grabbing her extremities on a regular basis.

He blinked in surprise at the sudden cessation of her movement; he wondered if she would to punch him as she'd always done to Naruto when he'd incurred her wrath. But as he felt her fingers underneath his, absent-mindedly cataloging the calluses on her hand as he did so, he watched goose-pimples raise up on her arm. She continued to try to pull at her hand in short yanks, but his hand held fast to hers. If she wanted to, she could break away with chakra, and he'd let her, not exactly excited to prompt a panic within their civilian onlookers if he attempted to overpower her. Instead, she stilled, and turned to look at him.

Was that..._fear_ laced into the corners of her eyes? His gaze fell downwards again, as embarrassed as Sasuke Uchiha could manage to be. He'd taken off after her with the goal of catching her. Now that he was here though, he wasn't sure what to say.

_You saved my ass back there…? I probably would've found an excuse to blow my brains out if you hadn't accepted….?_

"...I-" The syllable came out of his mouth but the voice wasn't his own; it was a struggling voice, one that was strangled with effort. He preoccupied his immediate mind with staring at where their hands connected, counting the calluses on her fingers.

_One. Two. Three. Four._

"A- Arigatou gozaimasu, Sakura."

He met her gaze then, watching her jaw drop in surprise. Her thin, slightly dry pink petal lips parted, and she blinked a few times, eyes pried wide. She pulled her hand back to her person, gently this time. He let her fingers slide out of hers, leaving a trail of fire and tingles in their wake that traveled up his arm faster than the sparks of the chidori.

Her expression changed, the corners of her mouth pulling out and not up in a full smile. A pleasant expression, but a fake one.

"No problem, Sasuke-kun. See you in a week."

* * *

><p>Back at her apartment, she pulled the covers over her head and sunk into her mattress.<p>

And she thought life was hard when she was twelve.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for reading~<strong>

**I'd started this story in hopes that it'd be in line with canon, but if you're keeping up with the manga (and I'm guessing you are), you've probably realized that the actual ending of _Naruto_ is not going to line up perfectly with this story. Lame, I know. It's not a huge deal, as I think 90% of the content _could _be plausible post-canon, so I'm not _too _worried about it. I might go back later and tweak certain ranks of certain individuals, but other than that, I hope you can enjoy this piece as it is, and I will continue to write it as I had planned to. Again, thanks for the read and any comments/reviews you feel the need to leave (and you know I love it when you do). **

**Amy**


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